Team Thirteen!
by Joanna The Storyteller
Summary: Ino was told to stay away from Naruto, so naturally she did the exact opposite. Pulling a grumbling Shikamaru into the whole thing was no contest. Throw in a few pieces of dango, and a team like no other was going to be born.
1. Chapter 1

Their first real mission. Damn, but was he excited!

"Calm down Naruto," a bored voice whined at him

…eh? Too excited, maybe?

Nah. The Nara was just being the spoilsport he was born as.

"You're definitely right about the spoilsport thing, Naruto, but Shika's got a point too. You're _bouncing_." The blonde kunoichi pointed at his feet which were, admittedly, leaving the ground at repeated intervals.

Naruto stopped grudgingly.

…damn mind reader.

"I heard that!"

Raising his arms in a feeble defence against the punishment he was sure to soon receive, a deeply sensual voice stopped any argument between the two.

"Ino-chan, Naruto-chan, we are on a miiiiissssiooon. A biiiiiiig mission."

A sharp, savage smile broke through the gentle façade their sensei had tried to use.

"No going breaking the pretty mission before it even has started, or else sensei is gonna be reeeeeeaaaaal mad."

The purple-haired tokubetsu jounin cackled wildly into the fog around them, earning her a frightened glare from the ferryman.

Was this really the warriors of darkness, the silent assassins? He'd seen drunkards more discrete than this bunch!

"Point taken!" Naruto quickly agreed with a salute.

"Y-yes," Ino said with an involuntary shiver, no doubt having seen a few disturbing images broadcasted from their senseis mind.

"Troubelsome."

Anko looked over her small group of students. They were probably a bit tense, this being their first big mission and all. Luckily, she had the cure for that!

"Let's play strip poker!"

"Eh?"

"In this cold?"

"Troublesome."

…predictable brats. Well, no worries.

She smiled at them.

Sweetly, she believed. Or savagely commanding, but it basically amounted to the same thing.

Namely them playing strip poker on a rocky boat, in thick mist, in enemy territory, while on a C-rank mission.

...

What? No one had ever expected her of all people to be sane... spare the crying ferryman perhaps.

* * *

><p><em>Joanna's Notes<em>

_I'll let this fic go wherever it wants to, be it Australia, Konoha or beneath my own mattress._ _If you feel confused, no worries. So am I._

_It'll all come clear (hopefully) soon._


	2. Chapter 2

Yo. Remember to use safety when doing fanfiction kids. I don't own Naruto. I just... borrow him!

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><p><strong>Chapter Two: New friends<br>**

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><p>Ino, Shikamaru and Naruto. A slightly odd combination of talents and personalities. A hyperactive loser with grand ambitions, a sleepy genius with a penchant for skipping work, and a fashionable, proud girl who ruled with an iron fist.<p>

At a brief glance, one would assume they would never mesh well together.

Well, not if you looked deeper either. But there had been certain circumstances. Circumstances that had begun with one, small misunderstanding during their early academy days.

* * *

><p>It had been the start of the first year in academy. Most of the kids from the different clans already knew each other, and the same went for the civilians that had applied.<p>

Groups were formed quickly. Everyone knew someone.

Except for one boy.

Naruto.

Said boy had been eagerly trying to gain attention from the different groups, had tried to join conversations and tried to act funny.

While pranking had given him some satisfying laughs (so he'd definitely continue with that), he wanted more than anything else to speak with someone.

His first target was a nervous girl with pink shiny hair, who seemed to need someone. He'd be happy to fill that role for her. Ecstatic, even.

So one day, he decided to approach her. It was during a class where the girl was (for some reason) picking flowers. He had slowly approached her as she sat in the sunny grass, and had smelt her shampoo.

It smelt great.

Then, she noticed him.

"W-what?" she asked with unsure eyes meeting his for a second, then darting to the ground.

Naruto on the other hand was overcome with insecurity like never before. She was so pretty. She smelt so good. The sun was so pleasantly warm. She was speaking to him.

It was a sensation overload for the young boys mind. Too much to handle at once.

"I LOVE YOU!" he finally blurted out.

Her eyes became wide with fright.

"I-I don't love you!" she blurted back. "Go away!"

Despite it hadn't been his intention to confess, Naruto still felt heartbroken. So he pushed on.

"PLEASE!"

"NO!"

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SAKURA!"

A blonde female darted to she side of the now crying pinkette, shielding her from the shady boy.

"Who are you," the girl demanded with a scary aura demanding obedience.

"N-Naruto. Uzumaki," he responded in a shaky voice.

"Well, Uzumaki. Stay away from Sakura. Forever!"

Naruto had quickly run away after that, disappointment and anger causing him to skip school for the rest of the week.

* * *

><p>"You made her cry," Ino accused her fellow blonde.<p>

"It wasn't intentional! Sheesh, you didn't have to scream at me like that. It was traumatizing I tell you, traumatizing!"

"I know what you mean," Shikamaru added his first cents to their reminiscing in their shared room, having finally made it to Nami no kuni. "It's terrible."

"I know, right?"

"HEY! I was just in a… rebellious phase," she tried to defend herself.

"And lucky was that." Naruto grinned. "Otherwise I'd never gotten to know you."

* * *

><p>Ino was a girl who enjoyed gossip. Speaking in general, actually. So it came as no surprise when at the dinner table, she explained how she had protected little Sakura against the terrible Naruto.<p>

While expecting some awe, maybe some grins, but at the very least some words of appreciation, the response she received was quite… strange.

"Naruto… Uzumaki?"

"Yep! He's a-"

"You should stay away from him, Ino," her mother cautioned her.

"It's better to keep away from that boy," Inochi agreed.

Ino instantly grew suspicious. It was, after all, something her parents suggested.

"…why?"

Her eyes narrowed at her parents˙.

"…he's a troublemaker," her mother tried.

"There are bad rumours about him," her father joined in.

Really. Rumors? That she hadn't heard?

The young girl scoffed at the thought.

"You are lyyyyyyiiiing," she whined at them.

"Princess, just trust our word and stay away for him. We just want your best," Inochi said with his best smile.

But Ino was a proud girl. Ino was an obstinate girl. Ino was a girl who wanted to be independent, even at that tender age.

And that meant opposing her parents.

"Uzumaki-san."

Naruto looked up from his textbook, cluttered with scribbles that were probably supposed to look like something.

Probably.

"Ye- YES!" he quickly stood up in a salute, trying to appease the scary girl as fast as possible.

Ino smiled at her power to order him around. It was a favourite pastime of hers she enjoyed practising with Shikamaru. Daily.

She cleared her throat and gave a moment to think through what she should ask him. Not being one to tread lightly around hot porridge, she settled for the fastest way to sate her curiosity.

"Why are you bad?"

For that, Naruto had no initial answer. Why was he "bad"? It was'nt the pranks – them he'd started with as a way to retaliate. It had just always been that way… there was no real answer.

Her tapping foot prompted him to find one anyway.

"Eh… I-" Naruto searched his mind for anything. "-dress badly?

Ino quickly scanned the boy with professional eyes.

Indeed. That shirt and those shorts were totally out of fashion. But rather than rejected, those with poor fashion sense was to be pitied had always been her standpoint.

There had to be something more.

"And….?"

The tapping foot resumed, stressing the poor kid out.

"I got strange birthmarks?"

Not enough.

"And….?"

Naruto panicked.

"I- uh- eat ramen every day?"

Yuck. But still no.

"And…?"

* * *

><p>"And then came my savior," Naruto laughed with a wide smile. Shikamaru sighed, but smiled too.<p>

"It was troublesome, but her constant nagging got on my nerves. I just wanted to sleep."

Naruto laughed.

"Aawww… Shika's shy. You knew she'd just attack you instead if you interfered. You wanted to help me."

"And how come I seem like the villain," Ino said with a pout, having rolled over to her side to get a better look on her teammates. The room, while small, was comfortable. Team seven occupied the two rooms next to theirs, one for Sakura, one for Sasuke and Chouji.

"'Cause you really were - at that point," Naruto said with a grin.

"Fhe." Ino smiled. "Just cause you guys had no guts… someone had to take the role, right?"

"But you liked that role far to much," Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes. "Which is why I had to interfere."

* * *

><p>"Ino, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish, but do it in a place where I cant hear you," Shikamaru said in a supremely irritated tone, apparently awakened from his nap.<p>

"Slacker! Don't but in!" Ino quickly commanded the "slacker".

Shikamaru became even more ticked off.

"Yeah? Why is a violent, loud tomboy harassing a classmate of mine?"

"Because I feel like it. Stay out of this, Shika… it's for your own good," Ino kindly warned her childhood friend(underling).

"Being a nuisance for no reason at all is just like you, Ino-buta," Shikamaru sneered at her, causing Ino to bristle.

"Oh! Then you tell me why Naruto is bad!"

Meanwhile, Naruto had shrunk down in his seat and swiftly escaped from the battle between the two enemies. He had no idea what he had done, but no way he was going to stay close to that crazy girl!

* * *

><p>"So we decided to find out why we weren't allowed to get to know you," Shika sighed. "An altogether troublesome thing to do."<p>

"But the stakes were high," Ino added. "If he found out before me, I would have to be silent for a week. If I won, Shika would have to do whatever I wanted him to for one week."

"Wow… that's basically betting part of your very core. And all for me…" Naruto said, clutching the sheet above his heart, touched.

"But I had no idea it was going to be so troublesome," Shikamaru groaned. "If I'd known…"

"You thought you could get it straight from your parents," Ino smirked. "But they were just like mine."

"So we had to tail you on your spare time."

* * *

><p>And what they noticed was an pretty sad life. All meals consisted of ramen. All spare time went to pranks (some of which were pretty damn amusing to watch though) and just walking around, getting ignored or yelled at.<p>

After one week of observations and asking around, Ino and Shikamaru met for a meeting.

"It's strange," Ino said, sounding unusually concerned.

"Yeah. Something's wrong," Shikamaru agreed with Ino – a rarity few had ever witnessed.

The villagers with near no exception – the people in the ramen stand being the exception – either ignored or looked at the boy coldly. No one would answer any question about him, except the unanimous consensus that "kids like you should keep away from him", "he is dangerous" or "it's better not to know."

This irked Shikamaru. He disliked mysteries.

This irked Ino. She disliked unfair treatment.

As a result, Naruto's life soon began to change. It was a gradual thing. Nearly unnoticeable in the beginning – but change it did.

"This place free?"

Shikamaru didn't wait for an answer as he slid down next to Naruto at the start of class.

Ignoring the shock in Naruto's eyes, he then fell asleep.

"Morning Naruto." Ino smiled at him as she passed him by with a wave of her hand.

…the hell?

"It's dog, boar ram, not the other way around," Shikamaru casually commented on the pranksters attempt to perform the Henge.

"Hey Naruto, wanna play tag?" Ino called out.

Naruto looked at the other kids, saw their disagreement with the proposition, and shied away.

"Want to play shouji?"

"Naruto, you can't walk around in those rags! Come here!

"My mom is pretty troublesome. Thanks for helping me out… I'd never get finished with the laundry otherwise."

"Actually, only Hinata and Sakura are decent girls. The others are just… well, you know – idiots."

"It's nice, isn't it… watching the clouds. I'd like to be a cloud, actually."

"Say, what do you think of this dress? Does it look good, or…?"

* * *

><p>"Yeah, I wondered what was going on back then. Suddenly Shika sat down beside me, and you greeted me Ino. And just a few months from that I was allowed to have an opinion on what you were wearing…"<p>

Naruto knelt down on the ground, scanning it for anything out of order.

"Hmm… surprisingly, behind those awful clothes, you had a decent grasp on what looked good and what didn't," Ino jested.

"I still don't see the point of dressing up, Shikamaru grumbled, finishing up his notes on the situation in wave.

"You should. It's an important part of our job after all."

"I mean in our spare time. During work, of course I know the importance," he grumbled.

Ino stretched her neck out with a grin.

"Weeeeeelll… enough prep?"

"Yup. Just the timing left – Shika?"

The brunette gave it a few seconds thought.

"Going by Kakashis estimation, we've got three days left till things escalate. We need to finish this by tomorrow. We're tight pressed for time, but going by Gato's profile, securtiy will be lax with confidence in numbers, so we should be fine."

"Gotcha." The blonde gave his trademark foxy grin. "Your plans have never failed us before, Shika. Not even in the beginning."

* * *

><p>"Hey Naruto?"<p>

"Yeah?" Naruto rose up from his comfortable position underneath a willow tree in the Nara's territory.

"You remember what Shika and I argued about last year? Why you were disliked and all that?"

Ino propped her head in the palm of her hand, yale blue eyes meeting pale summer sky.

"We never figured it out," Shikamaru interjected, eyes closed and body perfectly relaxed. "You're a good guy."

"A bit too hyperactive and loud-" Shikamaru coughed as Ino spoke, earning him a glare "- but really, nothing unusual."

She glanced at him curiously.

"You seriously have no idea?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Ever since I can remember, it's been the same. I've been called monster, got stuff thrown at me, and been ignored. Only Jiji, Teuchi-san, Ayame-chan and Iruka-sensei have ever treated me kindly – ah, and you guys of course. You are my... best friends," Naruto said simply, with a hint of embarrassment and hesitation showing at the end.

Ino gushed and rolled over to the blonde and hugged him tightly.

"Aawwww, what a little charmer you've become! Like this finding a girl wont ever be a problem! You should take a leaf out of his book, Shika!"

"Mm," the Nara agreed half-heartedly with a light smile. "If you say so…"

"See that attitude Naruto? That I-don't-care-if-the-world-goes-under-let-me-sleep-attitude? That totally repels girls! You're lucky you got me Shika!"

"…whatever you say," the brunette sighed, locked eyes with the clouds far above them. "Listen. I've been thinking the last few days."

Both blondes perked their ears, Ino releasing Naruto from her death-grip. If Shikamaru had spent days thinking about something, it was something beyond major. It was _huge_.

"You are one of my best friends too, Naruto," he began seriously. "And that's why I can't let this go on any longer. You are hated for no reason, teachers are sabotaging your education and you can't buy food like normal people. It is wrong, Naruto. I think we should talk this over with the Sandaime directly. Today. He is the leader of this village, he will know. And you have a right to know."

And with that it was decided. They were going to meet with the Sandaime.

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><p>Joannas notes<br>So, chapter two. Enter background story and how they got to know each other. Anyone wondering where Chouji is? All I can say is...  
>He'll appear. Sometime.<br>Probably.

So long!


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